Synonyms and antonyms of Linguistic terms relating to word formation and phrase building in British Thesaurus

affix (noun)

a new part added to the beginning or end of a word that changes its meaning

affixation (noun)

the process of adding a new part (a prefix or suffix) to the beginning or end of a word, so that the word’s meaning is changed

anaphora (noun)

the use of words such as a pronoun, the verb ‘do’, or the words ‘so’ and ‘nor’ in a sentence instead of repeating a word used earlier. For example, in ‘We love this new technology, and so do all our clients’, ‘so’ and ‘do’ are examples of anaphora.

aphaeresis (noun)

the process by which a word loses its initial sound or sounds, for example ’cause (because) or ’twas (it was)

apocope (noun)

the process by which sounds are lost from the ends of words, for example ‘lamb’ and ‘mike’ (microphone)

apposition (noun)

the relationship between two noun groups that are used next to each other and refer to the same person or thing. For example, in ‘David has a wife, a university teacher, and two adult sons’, ‘a wife’ and ‘a university teacher’ are in apposition.

appropriacy (noun)

the degree to which a word, expression, or grammar pattern is natural or acceptable in a particular situation

appropriateness (noun)

linguistics appropriacy

blend (noun)

linguistics a word formed by combining parts of two other words, for example ‘brunch’ is a blend of ‘breakfast’ and ‘lunch’

canonical form (noun)

the most basic or standard form of an expression

componential analysis (noun)

the process of studying the meaning of a word by examining the parts it is made of

compound (noun)

linguistics a combination of two or more words that is used as a single word. The three main types of compound are noun compounds (for example ‘bus stop’), adjective compounds (for example ‘self-centred’), and verb compounds (for example to ‘windsurf’).

compounding (noun)

the way in which two or more words can be joined together to form new words

derivation (noun)

the origin of a word

derivative (noun)

linguistics a word that is formed from another word, for example an adverb that is formed from an adjective by adding ‘-ly’

diminutive (noun)

a word formed by adding a diminutive suffix

diminutive suffix (noun)

a group of letters that are added to the end of a word to show that something is smaller than things of that type usually are, for example ‘-let’ added to ‘drop’ to make ‘droplet’

ending (noun)

the last group of letters in a word

etymology (noun)

the origin and development of a particular word

folk etymology (noun)

an explanation for the origin of a word or phrase that is believed by many people to be true but that cannot be proved, for example, the belief that ‘posh’ stands for ‘port out, starboard home’

folk etymology (noun)

the process by which people adapt a word or phrase that is unfamiliar or foreign to a more familiar form

form (noun)

linguistics one part of a verb or other word that has several different parts

form (verb)

linguistics to make one of the parts of a verb or other word that has several different parts

grammaticalization (noun)

the process of language change by which words lose some or all of their lexical meaning and start to fulfil grammatical functions

grammatical metaphor (noun)

the way in which concepts that are usually expressed in one grammatical form are expressed in another, mainly by using a noun to express a concept normally expressed by a verb

hyphenate (verb)

to join words or parts of a word using a hyphen

lexicalise ()

a British spelling of lexicalize

lexicalize (verb)

to put a concept into a word or words

nominalize (verb)

to change a verb or adjective in order to make a noun

nouning (noun)

the act or process of turning a verb or other part of speech into a noun

phrasal (adjective)

formal relating to phrases, or consisting of a phrase

phraseology (noun)

formal a particular way of putting words together to express something

phrasing (noun)

the way that someone puts words together to express something

prefix (noun)

linguistics a group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. For example, the prefix ‘un-’ is added to the word ‘tidy’ to form ‘untidy’.

root (noun)

linguistics the most basic form of a word, or a word that is the base for other words

stem (noun)

linguistics the part of a word that does not change when an ending is added, for example ‘work’ in the word ‘working’

suffix (noun)

a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to make another, usually of a different word class. For example the suffix ‘-ness’ is added to ‘happy’ to make the noun ‘happiness’, and ‘ful’ is added to ‘hope’ to make the adjective ‘hopeful’.

verbalise ()

a British spelling of verbalize

verbalize (verb)

linguistics to change a word into a verb

verbing (noun)

the act or process of turning a noun or another part of speech into a verb